Meta’s historic loss in court could cost more than $375 million

New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez He won a historic sum of $375 million In the landmark Child Safety case against Meta earlier this year. But the next phase of the battle could be even more important for Meta and the social media industry in general.

Starting Monday, Meta and New Mexico attorneys will return to a Santa Fe courthouse for a three-week public nuisance trial, where they will argue whether Changes the AG wants the judge to order Meta is created on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. These changes include adding age verification for New Mexico users, blocking end-to-end encryption for users under 18 and capping their usage to 90 hours per month, limiting engagement-boosting features like infinite scrolling and autoplay, and requiring Meta to detect 99 percent of new child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

“From the beginning, our goal was to try to change the way the company does business,” Torrez said. Edge I recently visited Washington, D.C., to advocate for new child safety legislation. “I realize that even at $375 million for a company of that size and that profitability, it’s not enough on its own to change the way they do business. In fact, there are probably some people in that company who think it’s just the cost of doing business.”

While any changes ordered by the judge will only apply to Meta and its operations in New Mexico, the company can apply the changes in other states for simplicity. or, As he threatened to doit could simply be dark in the state. The court order could send a message to other tech companies that courts may be willing to change their actions if they are found liable.

During trial, New Mexico will argue that Meta has become a public nuisance by creating a public health risk in the state. The Prosecutor’s Office expects to call approximately 15 witnesses, including experts who will testify about the feasibility of the proposed remedies, and witnesses of fact who will testify about the alleged harm done to Meta. After Meta presents her defence, Judge Brian Bedscheid will evaluate relevant and possible proposals – a process that could take some time, compared to the quick turnaround of the jury’s verdict in March.

A landslide win for New Mexico could energize Torrez and Thousands of other plaintiffs She is currently pursuing cases against technology companies. Conversely, limited demand can be a big hit. The outcome will not directly affect other cases, but it will certainly influence negotiations over potential settlements.

Many of Torrez’s requests are hot-button technology policy issues. Age verification will almost certainly require Meta or a third-party provider to collect more personal information about adults and minors alike, which privacy advocates have consistently warned could make users less safe. Don McGowan, who previously served on the board of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), said blocking encrypted communications on platforms like Facebook “is a great way to make sure no one uses Facebook Messenger anymore and moves their activity to other platforms untouched by this lawsuit.”

Delegation may do little to change the reality of certain parts of the business, Meta recently announced Eliminate end-to-end encrypted messages On Instagram it was said that “very few people” had actually used it.

There may be “significant trade-offs” to banning encryption, and other changes may be more effective, said Peter Chapman, associate director of the Knight Georgetown Institute, which works to connect policymakers and others with independent technology policy research. For example, evidence Provided by the state It showed that Meta’s profile recommendations were pairing adults with minors, a feature that poses a clearer risk of harm without significant benefit, and which Torrez is also asking the court to stop. “There is an opportunity to intervene at this level and try to prevent more of these harmful interactions from occurring without having to address the encryption,” Chapman said.

Any change to a single feature is unlikely to solve the entire child and teen safety issue, which is why it’s noteworthy that Torrez plans to call for several layers of changes, Chapman said. However, the overall effectiveness of any particular treatment will also depend on how it is implemented and monitored. For example, what methodology does Meta use to report a 99 percent detection rate for new CSAMs? How can he calculate or guess what he has not caught? The same applies to the accuracy and reliability of any mandatory age verification process.

Meta points out this potential problem in her argument against Torrez’s proposed treatments. “No matter where the accuracy limit is set, Meta will never be able to prove that the system meets that standard, because performing the calculation would require Meta to detect 100% of the CSAM to use as a denominator,” the company wrote in a legal filing. Torrez’s chief deputy, James Grayson, said on a press call that the court and the appointed independent monitor will have some discretion over tracking. The office has not yet determined who this observer will be.

Meta and other groups that oppose the attorney general’s approach say the results he seeks are counterproductive. “The demands being made in New Mexico are ill-considered and provide massive additional exposure to other types of exploitation,” said Maureen Flatley, president of Stop Child Predators, a group that advocates for more funding for criminal enforcement against child predators. Received funding from Meta Trade Suite supported by NetChoice. “The idea that platforms should be responsible for firing all these people would be like saying to the American Bankers Association, ‘By the way, you’re responsible for all the bank robberies from now on,’ which is ridiculous.”

“The New Mexico Attorney General’s focus on one platform is a misguided strategy that ignores the hundreds of other apps teens use daily,” Chris Sgro, a Meta spokesman, said in a statement. “The state’s proposed mandates violate parental rights and stifle the freedom of expression for all New Mexico residents. Regardless, we remain committed to providing safe, age-appropriate experiences, and have already rolled out many of the protections the state is seeking, including 13 safety measures in the past year.”

But Torrez also targeted the broader tech industry. He recently visited Washington, D.C., to call for new protections for children online and reform of Section 230, the law that protects tech platforms from liability for their users’ posts. “Even though we were able to win in district court in Santa Fe, I still think the law as currently drafted creates a lot of ambiguity,” he said. Edge On that visit. “If Section 230 is not something these companies can hide behind, it increases the chances that they will have to present their case to a jury.”

But regulation through lawsuits is “not an uncommon story” in the United States, Chapman said. “Whether it’s tobacco, opioids or e-cigarettes, there is precedent for legal action driving a broader political conversation.”